In vehicles air conditioning is normally based on compressor driven cooling devices. Stationary cooling plants may instead be based on heatdriven absorption chillers, normally incorporating ammonia - water or water - LiBr pairs of substances. New types of absorptive chillers are continuously being developed, in particular in the US and Japan (such as by the Heat Pump Technology Centre of Japan in Tokyo).
A prior art type of heat-driven chiller, which was in wide use some decades ago, for instance on board ships, is the steam/water ejector chiller. Recently this type of apparatus has been suggested as a cooling device to be installed in buildings, driven by heat supplied by a district heating system.